


The Seventh Son: Act Four - Libri Fatali

by strixus



Series: The Book of Dreams [9]
Category: Gundam Wing, The Endless
Genre: Crossover, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-27
Updated: 2009-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-05 08:57:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strixus/pseuds/strixus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Excitate vow e somno, liberi mei. Kindle a vow from dreams, my children,<br/>Cunae non sunt. There are no cradles.<br/>Excitate vow e somno, liberi fatali. Kindle a vow from dreams, children of fate<br/>Somnus non eat. Let not dreams go [away].<br/>Surgite. Get up.<br/>Invenite hortum veritatis. Go find the garden of truth.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Libri Fatali - Part One - The Children of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Excitate vow e somno, liberi mei. Kindle a vow from dreams, my children,  
> Cunae non sunt. There are no cradles.  
> Excitate vow e somno, liberi fatali. Kindle a vow from dreams, children of fate  
> Somnus non eat. Let not dreams go [away].  
> Surgite. Get up.  
> Invenite hortum veritatis. Go find the garden of truth.

The small room was dark, with no windows to let light in from the artificial sun of the colony, and the lights off, it might as well been the deepest cave on earth for all the light in it. Cramped into the small room was a folding chair, on which lay a duffel of rumpled clothing, and a very small bed, little more than a cot. Duo Maxwell lay curled in the bed, under a thin white sheet, his eyes and jaw clenched closed.

Duo was asleep, lost in a world that seemed made of nightmares.

He could feel the tendrils of Zephiruxs still, touching him all over, penetrating his skin. Even in the nightmare, he could smell the awful smell of the WingZero's command center, a sick smell like madness and death. The final tentacles were working their way towards his face, reaching for him, ready to dig into his eyes, his nose and mouth. Not again, not again, he screamed, mother, protect me please, not again!

And even as that dream shattered, his mind filled with a scream that threatened to break his mind. A woman, screaming in pain beyond anything he thought possible, something working its way out of her grossly swollen belly, a nightmare within a nightmare being born as no natural thing was ever born. Her eyes begged the mercy of death, empty green eyes framed in a wild spray of blood soaked blond hair, and Duo reached out for her in the dream, looking for that fragile silver thread that he could break and release her. But there was no thread, not even a filament, as though her soul were already gone.

And then he saw, though he wished not to see, the silver thread that had been pulled from her body - no ripped from her body - attached to the nightmare thing that had pushed forth from her womb. Duo screamed, knowing somewhere in his mind that this was the same sort of thing as Zephiruxs, knowing that this thing was far worse than the White Demon ever could be.

Soul Killer, his mind screamed at the beast, and for a moment he swore he saw its eyes focus on him. But then the monster was gone, lost in a swirl of gray. He heard the laughing of children, then a moan of pain and loss, and felt emptiness close in around him, a sucking vacuum of non-existence. Despair filled him, and in his sleep he wailed at the shear nothingness that filled him in this dream that was not dreaming. There was no hope,

(oh mother, protect me)

no chance, no peace ever to be found for him, or for anyone. He was lost, his soul lost, gone. And a worse despair filled him, an angry rage of self-destruction, pure in its hopelessness and hate. So much destruction, so many deaths: they were not souls whose time had come, not at all. So much life they had, so much freedom. And they screamed, railed against those who had stolen life from them so early.

His heart clenched in his chest, as though unable to beat for his sobs. Children, only children, that's all we are, he cried in his sleep. But the souls screamed at him, damning him, hating him, seeking to

(oh mother, protect me)

tear him apart, and teach him their suffering. Oh if only it were than easy...

And then there was gray, empty gray, filled with laughing children lost in the fog that was everywhere. And she was there, dark eyes filled with tears, her arms open, enfolding him

(enfolding him in great wings)

and comforting him. Her skin was cold, her flesh not flesh, but she was more comforting than any human could be.

Oh mother, oh mother, what have we done? He cried to her, tears flowing.

This is fate, this is life, this is death, she sang, this is the way of the world, the way of being, and not being. All things die, all things fall apart.

But they cry so, they scream so, they hate so.

As they did in life, they do in death, in Death our realm, all as is it was in life.

This is the way? Always?

Always.

When do I die, mother?

When all things die, when all things die - when their time comes.

And the world filled with the sound of wings, and the dream shattered to nothingness.

Duo opened his eyes, but did not move. She was with him still, but far away. He dared not move, else she fall to dust.

I am always with you, Duo.

And the world fell to dust around him.


	2. Libri Fatali - Part Two - The Man Without A Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ardente veritate With flaming truth  
> Urite mala mundi. burn away the evils of the world.  
> Ardente veritate With flaming truth  
> Incendite tenebras mundi. set fire to the shadows of the world.  
> Valete, liberi, Farewell, children  
> Diebus fatalibus. on these fateful days.

"So this is what a true Gundam is like." Treize mused to himself.

The interior was dark, cramped, and smelled of something strangely unpleasant yet appealing. He sat in the crash couch of the Gundam, a dark leather ordeal with space harness and ground harness mixed into one unit. All around him, the displays of the Gundam's systems blinked, and the external displays showed him the hangar the Epyon had been moved to. Its mechanical systems thrummed around him, the deep pulse of its hydraulic and pneumatic pumps seemed almost like heart beat and breathing.

"In the belly of the beast." He said, to no one in particular, not even himself.

Resting on his leg was a helmet, black like the shell of some predatory beetle, glistening in the dark half light of the cockpit. Picking it up in his gloved hands, Treize ran his fingers over it, almost a caress of affection, and then slid it over his head. The visor was blacked out, in the ready state of the Zero system, waiting for input to begin being fed to the main battle processor of the Gundam. Treize could hear nothing but his own breathing.

"Treize." The voice whispered softly in his ear, reptilian and seductive at the same time. "Treize, I will give you power if you use me right. Seek what I seek, and you will rule the world with me."  
"What? What is this?" He almost pulled the helmet off, but the first battle data was beginning to be displayed. He reacted, trying to keep the voice out of his mind.

"Let me show you, Lord Treize, let me show you, my master." It whispered softly. "Let me show you what future we have together."

Treize followed the battle data, but suddenly it was different, real data, not simulations. It was a real battle, hundreds of forces around him, all his, all at his command. Conquest of the colonies, conquest of all of Earth, to be his to rule as he chose. He would have the power, with this suit, he saw. He could lead thousands of troops into battle, all willing to die for him.

"No," he said through clenched teeth, "There is no honor in this."

"Have it your way, human." The voice hissed in his ear, as the vision vanished. "Mortal you are, mortal you will always be, and death is all that awaits you." The sound that followed was almost laughter. "Sooner than you think."

And the battle returned, but this time he was loosing, trapped in a foundering Taulgeese, battling a Gundam he did not recognize. Its wicked trident slashed at him, and he blocked, but the next hit came faster than he had thought it would. It found home in the belly of the Taulgeese, filling the compartment with fire and raw vacuum. Death was a sear of pain, and then nothingness.

"See, my master, you have no fate. Give me to someone who destiny has smiled on, give me to a child of peace." The whispering voice hissed at him.

Treize realized that the voice was right. And he knew the right child.

Heero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End


End file.
